The Government of India Act 1915 (5 & 6 Geo. V, c. 61) was an act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

, which consolidated prior Acts of Parliament concerning

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

into a single act. It was passed in July 1915 and went into effect on 1 January 1916. The act repealed 47 prior acts of Parliament, starting with an act of 1770, and replaced them with a single act containing 135 sections and five schedules. It was introduced first to the House of Lords, where it was referred to a joint committee of Parliament chaired by Lord Loreburn. The committee removed several provisions which went beyond the simple consolidation of existing law. A supplemental act, mostly technical in nature and including several of the provisions struck out of the consolidation act, was introduced and passed in 1916, becoming the "Government of India (Amendment) Act 1916" (6 & 7 Geo. V, c. 37). The Government of India Act 1915 and its supplemental act the following year "made the English statute law relating to India easier to understand, and therefore easier to amend."Ilbert, Sir Courtenay Peregrine. ''The Government of India'', Third Edition, revised and updated. Clarendon Press, 1922. p 123. The

Government of India Act 1919 The Government of India Act 1919 (9 & 10 Geo. 5 c. 101) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was passed to expand participation of Indians in the government of India. The Act embodied the reforms recommended in the report of ...

made substantial changes to the law.

References

{{reflist Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning India United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1915 July 1915 events 1915 in India